I’ve visited Dubuque, Iowa — a 105-mile drive west of Rockford — a few times as part of weekend getaways with my significant other. The last time was a year ago.

I’ve been impressed with Dubuque’s riverfront development and bustling downtown on Saturday afternoons. New buildings complement renovated structures with a historic feel around the Mississippi River. On one visit, we played a few hands of Texas Hold ’em at one of the two casinos and checked out ornate bed-and-breakfasts in Victorian homes that sit on limestone bluffs with great views. Another time, I bought jewelry and a scarf at an upscale thrift store and chocolates at a trendy shop. We had fun and plan to visit again.

Little did I know until I started researching last month what a down-on-its-luck city Dubuque was in the early 1980s, just like Rockford. At one point, each had the highest unemployment rate in the nation, with one in four workers out of a job.

The difference between the two cities is that since then, Dubuque has made a “tremendous transformation.” Those are the words of Rick Dickinson, president and CEO of the Greater Dubuque Development Corp.

In Rockford, business and civic leaders have just started the Rock River Regional Transformation process. A handful of local businessmen have pledged more than $3 million to get things going with the aim of addressing issues such as high rates of crime, poverty and unemployment. The group has no fixed solutions in mind and is seeking input from virtually everybody who lives here. One stated goal is to turn the city and region into one of the nation’s top 25 most desirable places to live, work and play by 2025. Last year, Forbes ranked Rockford third in its America’s Most Miserable Cities. A Regional Transformation summit for 100 to 150 community representatives will be held next month.

Rockford could learn from Dubuque.

With a population of about 58,000 people, compared with Rockford’s 153,000, Dubuque consistently lands at or near the top of positive city rankings. A few:

Kiplinger’s Personal Finance list of 10 Great Places to Live for 2013; 14th on Forbes’ 2013 list of Best Small Places for Business and Career; All-American City in 2013, for the third time in six years; one of the 100 Best Communities for Young People in 2012; Forbes’ The Best Small City to Raise a Family in 2010.

In the 2010 list, Forbes said Dubuque’s economy “successfully diversified after the collapse of the local manufacturing industry” and that its unemployment rate was nearly half the national average at 6.5 percent.

So how did Dubuque do it? “We brought everyone together,” Dickinson said. “Everyone had a voice, and no one had control.” And the efforts are regional in approach, including all of Dubuque County. The city of Dubuque is the county seat.

A few specifics of how Dubuque turned itself around, according to Dickinson:

- Fixed the circus-like city council. “In the 1980s, the city council’s reputation was a precursor to Jerry Springer,” he said, referring to the TV talk show host. “They made fools of themselves and the community.” In the early 1990s, citizens elected talent to public office and hired talent, including city manager Michael C. Van Milligen. And then, the people decided to support the people they hired. “There is a tremendous degree of civility in government.”

- Beefed up Greater Dubuque Development Corp. When Dickinson came to work there in 1985, the annual budget was $180,000, there were four staff members and two-thirds of the money came from the public sector. Now, the budget is $1.8 million, there are 10 staff members and the public sector contributes a third of the budget. The development group’s main focus is on retaining companies and helping them expand. In 2009, Dubuque also landed 1,300 new, higher-paying IBM jobs.

- Created job opportunities for the disadvantaged: “We have programs that identify adults that have made poor choices.” Opportunity Dubuque helps with costs for tuition at Northeast Iowa Community College, as well as for transportation and day care costs for those in the program that has graduated 165 people. Four of five have been placed in jobs such as welding and those associated with machine tools. Starting wage: $14. “If they miss class, they are out.”

- Developed a technology center: In 1997, the city acquired five farms totalling about 900 acres, with 550 acres becoming Dubuque Industrial Center West. More than 233 acres have been sold and 24 businesses have located in the center, including 21 local expansions and three new industries.

In 1983, 37,000 people worked in Dubuque County. Today, it’s 58,800.

- Redid the riverfront: “It was an absolute eyesore.” Now there are two casinos, a water park, a restored brewery and free parking downtown. And the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium was built as part of the $400 million riverfront renovation. “Our riverfront is one of the finest in the country.”

Dickinson said Dubuque’s Mystique and Diamond Jo casinos pump about $8 million a year into the public sector and charitable groups. Even so, he said, “Gaming is not the silver bullet everyone thinks it is.”

Page 3 of 3 - And he said plans for an Amtrak train to run between Chicago and Dubuque, with a stop in Rockford, would be nice for visitors both ways, “but we are not hanging our hat on that.”

One of the best measures of Dubuque’s transformation, Dickinson said, is a study by researchers at Harvard University and the University of California—Berkeley, that found that 17.9 percent of children in greater Dubuque born into poverty in 1980-81 are now in the top 20 percent of wage earners in the U.S.

“For me, it’s all about family,” Dickinson said of opportunities in Dubuque. “Both of my daughters came back to town because they got better jobs than they had in Greeley, Colo., and downtown Chicago.

“The secret sauce,” he added, is a “combination of making sure to create jobs while enhancing quality of life so the region becomes a magnet for talent.”

Dubuque continues to aim high. The development group’s Next 2017 campaign calls for creating 3,300 jobs countywide with an average wage of $18 an hour.

Here’s the upshot for Rockford: “Anybody can do it,” Dickinson said of regional transformation efforts.

“They have to finance the effort. They have to work well with each other. And they have to respect each other and keep moving forward.”